Text for the Week: The Beatitudes part 2

Scripture: Matthew 5:1-12

¹ Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up a mountain. He sat down and his disciples came to him. ² He taught them, saying:

³ “Happy are people who are hopeless, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

⁴ “Happy are people who grieve, because they will be made glad.

⁵ “Happy are people who are humble, because they will inherit the earth.

⁶ “Happy are people who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness, because they will be fed until they are full.

⁷ “Happy are people who show mercy, because they will receive mercy.

⁸ “Happy are people who have pure hearts, because they will see God.

⁹ “Happy are people who make peace, because they will be called God’s children.

¹⁰ “Happy are people whose lives are harassed because they are righteous, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

¹¹ “Happy are you when people insult you and harass you and speak all kinds of bad and false things about you, all because of me. ¹² Be full of joy and be glad, because you have a great reward in heaven. In the same way, people harassed the prophets who came before you.

Questions

1. What is righteousness and how does one hunger and thirst after it?
2. When should we expect this righteousness to take hold in the world and what does this hungering mean for our lives now?
3. What does it mean for someone to have a pure heart?
4. What does it mean to see God, does this refer to salvation and seeing God in eternity?
5. How are righteousness, mercy, and purity of heart related and how do they fit into the larger unit?

Background

Related Scriptures: Job 29:11-17, Psalm 1, 24:11-6, Luke 6, Galatians 6:1-4

Righteousness refers to being in a right relationship with another. Because the verse does not limit the term in any way we should recognize that the righteousness Jesus intends one to hunger for is not limited to one’s relationship with God. Hungering for righteousness is about wanting to see right relationships abound in one’s life with God, others, and extended to wanting to see a just society.

Mercy is related to our concept of empathy. Mercy requires a person to understand the struggles of another and to take tangible actions to help that person. Mercy requires one to help a person out of the situation they have made for themselves or that others have put them in.

On a surface level purity of heart is a commitment to being straightforward in one’s motives and single-minded. Within the context the concept means to be thoroughly committed to doing the right thing with the right motives. This may be building from Psalm 24 where the one with the pure heart is able to ascend to God’s throne.

Jesus seems to expect that the fulfillment of the blessings of the Beatitudes will be fully realized when God remakes the earth but anticipates that these characteristics will be displayed and fostered between now and then.

Reflection

The first three Beatitudes seem to place the emphasis of the blessing on a person’s situation; the people lifted up in God’s kingdom are the people who are downtrodden in the societies of the world. In the next grouping of Beatitudes Jesus seems to extend the blessing to those who have the proper response to this world. Righteousness, mercy, and pure hearts each reflect relational language and the desire to strengthen one’s connections. It is often assumed that righteousness is about “keeping the rules” or “living a moral life” and is associated with keeping good habits and refraining from vice. But this is not what Jesus means when he uses the term, his meaning is about those who long to have right relationships within this world, both with God and others. These are people who desperately work to create beneficial relationships in their world and when the relationships around them are not well it is equivalent to starvation. If we take seriously verses like Psalm 145:17 “The LORD is righteous in everything he does; he is filled with kindness.”, then we understand that God’s character and actions are defined by creating and maintaining just relationships. Thus, Jesus wants us to understand that when we long to see fair, equitable, and just relationships on earth we are emulating God.

We are called to seek righteousness with our very being because it begins in a deep search for a perfect relationship with God where we display our love for God in every aspect of life. As we do this we begin to learn what it means to live rightly within the world and so expand our sphere of righteousness toward others as we love them as ourselves. Hungering and thirsting for righteousness is about understanding that often in this world relationships are created that disadvantage one party and working to overcome that, particularly within our own lives but also within the larger society. In a world that teaches us to “get ahead” of others righteousness is about making sure others are treated well and taken care of.

Going along with this is the need for mercy, a term that translates God’s character toward humanity. God is faithful and loving to those who are unfaithful and undeserving- and this is the character that the Bible uses to define mercy, it is God’s commitment to showing mercy that allows God to be a savior. Mercy is empathy employed, the ability to grieve with or for someone and then work with that individual to bring wholeness and healing into their life. Mercy is a hunger for righteousness put into action, witnessing that relationships are out of balance or harmful to some and allowing that deep desire to restore and make right to bring healing to the situation. Marcy is not simply taking pity and giving in to a person’s demands or people pleasing because these do not result in justice or righteousness. Rather, mercy is genuinely experiencing what the other person does in an effort to restore that person to a right state of relations with yourself or the community. Whether the individual was wronged by you, another person, themselves or was the perpetrator of the wrong, mercy is working to undo the harm caused and restore health.

Of course, to truly live a life of mercy and hunger for these right relationships to be a reality one must also cultivate a pure heart. The heart represents the core of a person, the seat of emotions and intellect and both must be working together with an unclouded aim. When one is completely focused on creating right relationships and showing mercy to those who live with the consequences of then that person is truly reflecting God’s character in the world and living out the life that is blessed.

Takeaway

He has told you, human one, what is good and what the Lord requires from you: to do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humbly with your God. God is savior precisely because God is merciful. Micah 6:8